11/18/2009

Proof Reasoning for Abigail (Cody) Stack

Married Thomas Stack on 27 June 1846 at St. Malachi's in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

Aged 39 in the 1860 U.S. Census taken on 26 June 1860. (b. 1821)

Aged 47 in the 1870 U.S. Census taken on 7 June 1870. (b. 1823)

Aged 60 in the 1880 U.S. Census taken on 19 June 1880. (b. 1820)

Aged about 75 at death (January 1888) in newspaper [this refers to her and her husband]. (b. 1813)

Burial record as age 67 8 January 1888 from St. Hyacinth's Church (b. 1821)

Gravestone gives 1820 as birth date at St. Hyacinth's Cemetery.

There is no civil death certificate. Her parents are not named in any document. Her birth place is always listed as Ireland. Thomas Stack listed his birth place as County Cork in his naturalization application. She had six children: John A., Mary Ann, Thomas F., Ellen, Elizabeth Jane, and David William, born between 1847 and 1860.

A search for baptisms of Abigail Cody in the IFHF Database for all counties available, yields only six hits (out of 7,675,533 records). That seems to me that Abigail Cody is an uncommon name. Those six hits are all in County Cork: two in 1815, one in 1821, one in 1826 and two more in 1844 and 1856. These last two we can of course dismiss. Of the four in play (1815, 1815, 1821, 1826), 1821 seems the most likely, based on her given ages in records she left. That baptismal father's name is David, a name she uses for her own son. Using the IFHF Database again, only one marriage record (out of 3.8 million) that appears for an Abigail Cody (in 1840 in Cork, which is probably one of the 1815 baptisms).

And that's my reasoning thus far. It would be great to find more about her proposed parents and siblings and see if there is anything that names her as Abby Stack.